DECEMBER 2020 Sacajawea Audubon News Sacajawea Audubon Society builds on an interest in birds to promote the conservation of our natural environment through enjoyment, education, and action. SPECIAL VIRTUAL HOLIDAY PROGRAM Monday, December 14th, 2020: “Nature’s Best Hope: Sustaining Plants and Animals that Sustain Us” with Doug Tallamy acajawea Audubon Society and the Valley of Flowers S chapter of Montana Native Plant Society are pleased to co-host a special holiday program featuring best-selling author and native landscaping advocate Doug Tallamy. Doug will discuss findings from his latest book, Nature’s Best Hope, and share simple steps that each of us can— and must—take to reverse declining biodiversity in our world. Mr. Tallamy brings a new approach to conservation that starts in our own yards. By landscaping with native plant communities that sustain food webs and biodiversity, we can enhance local ecosystems rather than degrade them. If we do this in half of the area in America we now have in mowed lawns, we can create a new “Homegrown National Park”—a 20 million acre network of viable habitats that will provide vital corridors connecting the few natural areas that remain. This approach to conservation empowers each of us to play a significant role in the future of the natural world. Doug Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where Above: Bluebird. Below: Sphinx dollii. Photos by Doug Tallamy. he has authored 104 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 40 years. His book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association. The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, was published in 2014. Doug’s new book, Nature’s Best Hope, released by Timber Press in February 2020, is a New York Times Best Seller. If you would like to attend the Monday, December 14 Virtual Program, please register at: https://attendee. gotowebinar.com/register/6519370989340301580. Share our special virtual holiday program using hashtags #sasbirds #naturesbesthope #conservation SAS programs are free and open to the public. Our programs feature a special guest speaker the 2nd Monday of each month, September through May. Join us for a virtual social at 6:30 pm. Announcements and the program begin at 7:00 pm. For more information on SAS Program Meetings contact Kyle Moon at [email protected] SACAJAWEA AUDUBON SOCIETY GET YOUR 2021 SAS CALENDAR OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE CHAIRS Officers Be reminded of President Chris Nixon important SAS [email protected] dates and events, Vice President John Edwards enjoy quotes [email protected] about birds and Treasurer Mary Schlosser by birders, and [email protected] decorate your Secretary Emma Narotzky home or office [email protected] with 12 months of stunning Board Members images of birds Billy Burton [email protected] of the Greater Travis Kidd [email protected] Yellowstone eocsystem by Sacajawea Audubon Society’s own Forrest Vicki Saab [email protected] Roland and Kyle Moon. You can order the calendar for $25 Aaron Clausen [email protected] either online at sacajaweaaudubon.org or when joining or renewing your SAC membership (see membership form on page Loreene Reid [email protected] 3). Get—or gift—yours today! Forrest Rowland [email protected] Boardroom Bobcat [email protected] Bri Daniels SAS januaRY 2021 BOOK CLUB Activity Leaders n October, the SAS Book Club met both in person and online, Education Chair Travis Kidd but due to the increase in COVID-19 cases, we will be meeting [email protected] I ONLY online until further notice. Elisabeth Swanson has Conservation Co-Chairs Paulette Epple graciously agreed to be the facilitator for the online meetings. If [email protected] you want to join in JANUARY (there is NO meeting in December) Adele Pittendrig please let Elisabeth know. Her contact info is: [email protected] [email protected] or 406-570-8325. Field Trips, John Parker Bird Sightings [email protected] The January book selection is: Erosion by Terry Tempest Williams. Even if you can’t make the meeting....it’s a worthy read. “Terry Hospitality Sherry Staub Tempest Williams is our great [email protected] activist laureate. She is rooted as Membership Loreene Reid juniper, yet ephemeral as a sand [email protected] dune. The forces that have eroded Newsletter OPEN her are rapture and grief. What [email protected] remains is elemental beauty...If Programs Kyle Moon Williams’s haunting, powerful and [email protected] brave book can be summed up Website Lou Ann Harris in one line of advice it would be [email protected] this: try to stare down the grief of everyday life, speak out and find Social Media Bri Daniels [email protected] solace in the boundless beauty of nature.” The New York Times Wetlands Preservation Loreene Reid [email protected] The reading group invites all to join for a warm and welcome discussion to inspire you in all Book Club Sherry Staub/Elisabeth Swanson [email protected] things Conservation of Nature. Newsletter Design Amy Kelley Hoitsma [email protected] Questions? Contact Sherry Staub at 563-370-0757 or [email protected]. Newsletter Proofing Marjorie Smith Sacajawea Audubon Society Newsletter 2 Photo by Aaron Clausen. INDRELAND AUDUBON WETLAND PRESERVE UPDATE: DEC. 2020 A Beatiful Wetland Oasis Within Reach by the WPP Committee MAGINE being greeted at the east end of Bozeman by Thr Entire Scope of our Vision for the IAWP is Incredible! a beautiful wetland oasis teeming with birds and other e need your help to create the largest restored urban wildlife—this Vision is becoming Reality. I W wetland in Montana! We envision this project becoming In late 2018 and early 2019 SAS was gifted 32.4 acres of wetland an oasis in our urban setting where one can find tranquility property from Ileana Indreland, Michael Delaney, and John W. that wetlands offer. Murdoch. An additional approximately seven adjacent acres are in the process of being purchased. This ~40-acre site has been Please let us know the areas of interest to you: designated the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve (IAWP). ❒ Meet with a committee member to learn more Our goals are to acquire, restore/enhance, and permanently about the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve and share your thoughts maintain the IAWP wetland for environmental and educational purposes. The IAWP will be celebrated as the largest restored ❒ IAWP Feasibility Plan and Master Plan urban wetland in Montana. The restoration of this historical development progress wetland will leave a legacy for the future, while honoring its past ❒ Sacajawea Audubon Society and our as was recorded in the journals of Lewis & Clark. conservation and education programs Once restored, these wetlands will: ❒ Financial contribution opportunities • provide sanctuary for birds and other wildlife • serve as a living outdoor classroom ❒ List of birds observed at the IAWP • enhance water quality through stormwater ❒ retention and filtration I am interested in volunteering • offer a place of refuge and tranquility for visitors Thank you for your support and comments for Indreland Project components are: Audubon Wetland Preserve! Our fundraising goal is to raise $6 • property acquisition million over two years. Your help is essential. You can mail this • wetland restoration • design and installation of visitor improvements, form to PO Box 1711, Bozeman MT 59771-1711 or you can including a future nature center also fill out this form and make a secure gift online at • support stewardship for ongoing operations and https://bozemanwetlands.org/WP/give/ maintenance of the IAWP by SAS Join us in creating this wetland oasis! 3 December 2020 The Bridger Foothills Fire, Avian Winners and Losers By Victoria Saab, Research Biologist and Sacajawea Audubon Board of Directors his year’s fire season in the western United States shattered records: over five million acres burned. Eerie T orange skies and smoky days deprived of birdsong were widespread across the West, particularly California. Most of Montana was largely spared, excluding Bozeman’s Bridger Foothills Fire. The Bridger Foothills Fire was detected on September 4, 2020. The lightning-caused fire was the result of a storm several days prior, in late August. Strong winds, multiple days of warm temperatures, and dry conditions resulted in a burn of approximately 8000 acres. Fire fighters worked tirelessly to slow the spread of the fire and with the help of a cold front and precipitation, the fire ended in early October. The loss of homes and structures was devastating. Forest fires of greater than 1,000 acres had not been recorded in the Bridger Mountains for more than 100 years. Consequently, fuels of woody vegetation were abundant. The Bridger forests are dominated by Douglas-fir, which historically averaged a fire return interval of 47 years and burned as mixed-severity (Heyerdahl et al. 2006, Brown et al. 2020). Burn severity is measured by the vegetation change from pre- to post-fire and is an estimate of a fire’s long-term effects on plants. The fast-moving, extreme nature of the Bridger Foothills Fire